We stayed at Magic Blue for the first time in January 2008 for eight days and enjoyed it very much.

The location could not be better. It is just one block away from all the shops and restaurants on Quinta, the main street in Playa del Carmen. Quinta runs parallel to the beach, so Magic Blue is only two blocks from a beautiful white sand beach.

Magic Blue is pretty easy to miss from the street. The sign isn't big or obvious. But once inside the hotel is very distinctive and beautiful. It is constructed as an open courtyard with a pool, and the rooms surround the courtyard on three sides. There are lots of tropical trees and greenery in the courtyard, and a nice little open air bar that's open until midnight where we enjoyed going and meeting fellow guests from different countries.

The lobby of the hotel is a large bright room that separates the street from the open courtyard of the hotel. The friendly attendant took us up to our room and showed us how everything worked. There is an in-room safe available for a slight fee and well worth the peace of mine.

We were offered a free, "welcome", tropical drink of our choice upon checking in, and room service brought them up quickly.

Our room was on the second floor, with a rustic set of outdoor stairs leading to our porch, which had a nice little couch on it. We requested they add a hammock like we saw other rooms had, and it was put up immediately and at no extra cost.

The room was clean, attractive and modern, with a huge vaulted roof made of pretty, native palapa and beams. The room had free wireless Internet which we used with our laptop even out on our porch.

There is no phone in the room in the traditional sense. Instead they give you a cell phone to use during your stay, which is pre-loaded with about $20 value. You are free to take the phone with you outside the hotel to use as your own during your stay. It was a fantastic system for us, and though we used the phone, we did not manage to exceed the value loaded on it. Where other hotels will charge you for outside calls, Magic Blue actually enables your calls, and being able to carry the phone with us around town was so wonderfully convenient.

The hotel is adults only, no kids at all. There are relatively few Americans in Playa del Carmen, compared with Cancun just up the coast 40 miles. That was true at our hotel, too. Most of the guests were Italian, German, South American or English. Most of the staff spoke English which was very convenient for us.

The hotel has a large bar and club with a separate entrance just next to the hotel lobby entrance. Like most clubs, it's open to the air under a huge palapa roof. We were never bothered in our rooms by the sound of the club, but there's a nightclub a half block away that doesn't open until about 4:00am. Yes, 4:00am. That place plays music loud enough that we could occasionally hear it in our room. It was loud enough to wake us on a couple of occasions, but only because everything else was so quiet by contrast. You will also occasionally hear people in the street calling out to one another. Yes, you can hear outside noises, but they were few and far between. Mostly it's a quiet place.

The hotel provides a free breakfast buffet at the restaurant next door, and it was wonderful. There was an extensive selection including several juices, hot and cold cereals, various fruits, scrambled eggs, Mexican rice dishes, ham and more. Though it is a buffet, the people handling the service were very friendly and attentive.

Although the hotel is not on the beach, it is affiliated with a beach club just two blocks away. Just show your Hotel Magic Blue card and they let you right in. We forgot our cards one day, but they let us in anyway, because they recognized the beach towels we were carrying, which you pick up on your way through the hotel lobby on the way to the beach. Every time we arrived at the beach, we were greeted by Miguel, who took excellent care of us and made sure we were well looked after. He's all about service and making you feel welcome and pampered. The beach club offers free use of cabanas, chez-chairs, and has a full bar service and food menu. There was even a pretty masseuse on duty for beach front table massages. The sand is clean and powdery, and the water is just 50 feet or so away, so it's easy and fun to take frequent dips in the ocean.

From the moment we got up each morning we always saw the hotel staff busy scrubbing, cleaning, raking, gardening; keeping the place clean and neat and fresh.

We felt we got excellent value for the money at Magic Blue and the service was excellent and the people friendly. We are already talking about how soon we can return for our next stay there.

James

We stayed at Magic Blue at the end of January - wanted a bit of luxury after a long flight so spent two nights there before travelling down the Yucatan and staying in more basic places. It was perfect for what we needed - very very well designed and puts a smile on your face when you walk out the door first thing in the morning (with a sore head!) and see the courtyard with pool and huge palms and lovely gardens. As stated before the staff are out first thing cleaning and making sure everything is just right. The front of house staff are charming and always happy to help. You get a welcome drink and a mobile phone (with $20 credit) for your stay which are really nice touches along with sweets on your pillow each day, fresh water and towels. Breakfast was excellent (not sure why another reviewer would say it was just 'ok' - really couldnt see how it could be better! It can be a bit noisy in the morning with nearby construction traffic but cant see that that is the hotels fault and all hotels must suffer it. Great location otherwise. It is fairly expensive (for what i'm used to) but Playa is a fairly expensive place and it did seem reasonable compared to other similar hotels - we didnt actually go into these other hotels but from the outside it definately looked like we chose the best deal. Would highly recommend this place :-)

My husband and I stayed at the Magic Blue Feb. 17th through the 20th. I loved the location. It's close to the restaurants and shops and only a few blocks away from the beach. The hotel is MUCH smaller than I expected. It is set up courtyard style with the guest rooms surrounding the pool and bar. The hotel is not a resort, and it was quiet when we were there. The guests come in and out frequently, spending time in the city and on the beach.

The rooms are clean, but dimly lit. I found it hard to get ready. Also, we had problems with our shower. The shower head was broken and our entire bathroom area (which consists of a toilet and shower, VERY small) was wet, toilet paper and all. Our friends had it worse. No hot water. Actually, their water was freezing. We both reported the problems to the front desk. They said they would fix it but our shower was never fixed, and theirs still wasn't working when we left.

We were on the first floor and I didn't notice outside noise at night, but our friends on the second floor said they did. The breakfast buffet is okay. It's provided in a restaurant next door.

Overall, nice experience with a few minor problems. I would recommend checking your shower as soon as you get there and asking for a different room if it doesn't work.

We loved pretty much everything about this hotel and will definitely go back. The location is fantastic - 1 block from Quinta and a couple blocks away from the beach - very close to everything but just far enough to get away from the noise and bustle of Quinta. Our room was nicely decorated and very clean, the room service always available and very prompt. We loved the quiet mornings by the pool or in the hammock on our little porch. The hotel bar although small serves nice drinks and it's a great opportunity to meet your fellow travelers from around the world. The place is extremely clean - the hotel crew seemed to be out washing, scrubbing, cutting, and pruning first thing in the morning every day. The free breakfast totally exceeded our expectations with a great selection of fruit, juices, breads and cereal, egg and meat dishes to mention just a few. The beach club was really nice (also free) – we were greeted by Miguel right away and he aways made sure we were taken care of. The one thing the hotel needs to watch is the fact that the night clubs are starting to move away from the beach to the other side of Quinta – we could hear some music from a nearby night club at some ungodly early hour in the morning – wasn’t a huge problem but we did have a hard time going back to sleep.

Overall, it was a great experience at a great price.